"What do you make of it?" Duvall asked.
"I don't know. Looks as though she had melted up the whole stick, for some reason or other. Possibly to destroy it."
"Hardly that. It would have been far easier to have simply thrown it out of the window. And besides, the mere possession of a stick of sealing wax, black or otherwise, could not be regarded as evidence. This woman is smart, very smart and shrewd. She did not melt that wax up for nothing. I think I have an idea of her purpose, although I cannot, of course, be sure, yet. Did you find some coffee?"
"Yes. I'll have it ready very soon. What do you make of this woman's attitude?"
"It is simple enough. She believes that she can bluff this thing out without it being possible to prove her the author of the letters. And she may be right. Certainly, unless Miss Morton can identify her, or we can discover the death's-head seal in her possession, she stands a very good chance of getting away scot free."
The coffee which Grace presently brought in was drunk by the whole party in silence. Duvall seemed unusually preoccupied. His eyes scarcely left Miss Norman; he appeared to be studying her, watching her every movement with extraordinary interest, although he strove, by assuming a careless indifference, to disguise his scrutiny. Grace, who knew his methods, realized that the sealing wax in the candlestick had suggested some clue to him, which he was trying his best to work out.
At about seven o'clock Leary was sent out to fetch some breakfast. By half past eight they were ready to go to see Mrs. Morton.
Before doing so, Duvall thought it wise to call the latter up and make arrangements about their coming. He presently got Mrs. Morton on the wire.
"Good morning, Mrs. Morton. How is your daughter?" he asked.
"Much better," the reply came. "Very much better. I am going to take her back to the apartment at once."
"The apartment?"
"Yes. She will be more comfortable there, and safer, too, I think. We came here on your advice so that we might escape this fearful persecution. But since the persons who have been threatening my daughter have discovered our whereabouts, I see no reason for remaining any longer. Do you?"
"No. I was going to suggest that you should return. I think I can quite safely assure you that there will be no recurrence of the threats."
"Why do you say that?"
"Because I think the woman who has been making them is now in my hands. I will bring her to the apartment a little later in the morning so that your daughter may identify her. Will eleven o'clock suit you?"
"Yes, very well."
"Then I will come at that hour. Good-by." He hung up the receiver and turned to speak to Grace. His eyes, however, sought the figure of Miss Norman. She had not anticipated his quick scrutiny, and had for the moment ceased to be on her guard. Duvall smiled to himself. The theory which the spots of sealing wax had suggested had in that moment received an unexpected confirmation.
CHAPTER XX
Ruth Morton had received a fearful shock the evening before, but by the morning she had recovered from the immediate effects of it, although she still felt extremely weak.
When Duvall and his little party arrived at the apartment on Fifty-seventh Street, they were received in the library by Mrs. Morton.
She greeted both Grace and Duvall cordially, but it was evident, from her manner, that she found the presence of the Norman woman and Miss Ford highly distasteful to her.
Duvall drew her to one side, leaving the two women in charge of Leary and Grace.
"How is your daughter now, Mrs. Morton?" he asked.
"Better, I think."
"May I see her for a few moments?"
"Yes. She is expecting you. Come this way, please. She is occupying my room at present. She still has a fear of the other one – the one she formerly used."
"I see. But she need not have it now. There will be no further trouble." He followed Mrs. Morton into her bedroom.
Ruth, looking very haggard and white, was sitting in an easy chair by the window. Duvall was amazed to note how terribly the shock of the night before had affected her.
"How do you do, Miss Morton," he said, offering his hand. "I am glad to find you almost yourself again."
The girl looked up with a faint smile.
"Thank you, Mr. Duvall. I am much better. I understand that you have found out who has been causing me all this trouble."
"I think I have. But before I go ahead I want you to give me a little assistance. Do you think you would know the woman who came to your rooms last night, in case you should see her again?"
Miss Morton shuddered.
"I – I don't know. I do not think I saw her face. It was all so very sudden – "
"Tell me about it," Duvall said. "It may help me to get at the facts. That is, if you feel able to do so."
"I think I do. What shall I tell you?"
"Just describe, in a few words, what happened."
"Well, as you know, I had been feeling rather better yesterday, and had begun to rather laugh at my fears. Mother was with me constantly, and Nora as well, and I began to feel quite cheerful again, especially as I knew that you were making splendid progress and had found the woman who had been writing me. Mother told me that you expected to arrest her before the day was over. She said your wife had been helping you, too.
"After dinner Nora, who had been in the hotel all day, asked permission to go out for awhile and mother told her she might go. The poor girl had been almost a prisoner since we arrived at the hotel. That was about eight o'clock.
"About half past eight a boy came to the room with a card, upon which was written your wife's name, and a note asking if she might see mother for a few moments. We both looked at the card and then mother decided to go down and see her. She instructed me to lock the door while she was out, and of course I did so.
"In a few minutes mother came back. She seemed greatly excited, said that she had seen Mrs. Duvall and that you had sent a message to the effect that you had arrested the woman who had been threatening me and wanted mother to come to your hotel at once to appear against her in court. It was necessary, the woman who pretended to be your wife said, that mother should come at once, as otherwise the woman couldn't be held.
"We talked the matter over for a few moments and I told her that I thought she ought to go. She seemed rather afraid to leave me alone, but I promised to keep the door locked, and anyway, as I pointed out to her, if the woman was arrested I had nothing further to fear.
"At last mother decided she would go, and left me. I locked the door as soon as she went out.
"It seemed to me a very few moments before I heard some one rapping. At first I supposed that mother had come back for some reason or other. Then I thought it might be Nora who had said she was only going out for a breath of air. So, suspecting nothing, I unlocked the door and opened it.
"A woman came in, very quickly, before I realized it. She was not tall, and rather slight, and I think she had light hair. I couldn't see her face well because she had twisted a black veil across it, hiding her eyes and the upper part of her features. She turned as soon as she got in the room and locked the door.
"I was too surprised for a moment to speak, then I asked her what she wanted.
"'I want you,' she said in a terrible voice, and I saw that she was taking a bottle from her handbag.
"I was so frightened that I could not cry out, although I tried. You see, the warnings I had received had gotten me so worked up that my nerves were all on edge, and as soon as I saw the bottle, I concluded that the woman was about to throw vitriol in my face. So I put my hands to my eyes and ran into the bedroom.
"The woman came behind me, saying that my looks would soon be gone, that my days as an actress were over, and other things like that which I scarcely heard I was so frightened. When she got to me she caught hold of my arm and pulled me around, facing her.
"I couldn't keep my eyes closed now, for I simply had to see what she was doing. It seemed worse not looking at her, and then I thought I might take the bottle away from her and save myself in that way. So I took my hands from my face and rushed toward her.
"Then she raised the bottle and dashed something into my face.
"It seemed hot, stinging, and made my eyes burn frightfully. I was sure it was vitriol, and the thought was too much for me I guess, for I felt myself falling and – well, that's all I remember until I woke up and found the doctor and mother there. It was a terrible experience. I could scarcely believe them, when they told me, after I came to, that I wasn't really hurt at all."
Duvall looked at the girl's face. It showed no signs of injury, although her eyes were red and inflamed.
"Then it wasn't vitriol after all?" he asked, wondering.
"No, it apparently wasn't. The doctor said he thought it must have been ammonia."
"Remarkable!" Duvall muttered to himself. "Why should she have gone to all that trouble, just to frighten you?"
"That's apparently all she intended to do from the start. Do you know, Mr. Duvall, I've been thinking this thing over, and I believe her whole plan from the beginning was merely to ruin me in my work by fear. And I must say that she very nearly succeeded."
"Very nearly," said Duvall, with a frown. "If this thing had kept up for another week or two, you would have been a complete nervous wreck."
"I am now, I'm afraid," Miss Morton said, sadly. "I don't feel as though I could act again for a long time."
"Oh, yes, you will. You have youth, and that is everything. And now, tell me, do you think if you took a look at this woman you might recognize her?"
The girl shuddered.
"Is she – here?" she asked.
"Yes. In the library."
"You think it would be quite safe?"
"Quite. She can do you no harm while I am here."
"Very well. I will see her if you wish it, but I am very much afraid that I shall not be able to identify her." Duvall held out his hand.
"Come," he said. "I will take you in."
Miss Morton rose, and walking slowly and with considerable effort, went with him into the front room. Standing in the doorway, with the detective beside her, she confronted the two women. They regarded her with stony indifference.
"Miss Morton," Duvall said, "do you recognize either of these two women as the one who attacked you in your rooms last night?"
The girl gazed helplessly from Miss Ford to her companion and back again. Then she slowly shook her head.
"No," she said. "It might have been either of them. They look somewhat alike. But as for saying which one it was, if it was either of them, I'm afraid I can't. The woman was veiled. The room was not brightly lighted. And I was very much frightened."
The look of disappointment in Duvall's face was reflected in that of both Grace and Mrs. Morton. The two women, on the contrary, seemed vastly relieved. Miss Norman's mouth curled in rather an ironical smile.
"Are you through with this inquisition now?" she asked. "For if you are, my friend and myself would like to continue our journey. You have had no right to bring us here in the first place, and I am strongly considering making a complaint against you for having done so." She grasped firmly the umbrella she had held in her hand all the morning, and turned as though to go. Leary, however, stood before the door.
"You apparently have forgotten," Duvall remarked, going toward her, "that I still have a charge against you for attacking my wife."
"Very well; make it. I can prove that your wife forcibly entered my apartment under false pretense, saying that she was collecting money for the war sufferers in Poland. If I attacked her, it was in self-defense."
"That isn't true," cried Grace. "You sprang at me – "
"My word is as good as yours," Miss Norman interrupted. "And my friend here will bear out what I say." She nodded to Miss Ford. "You also," she again faced Duvall, "broke into my apartment without warrant and killed my pet monkey. You will have to answer for that as well. You have accused me of sending threatening letters to this girl here. I defy you to prove it."
Duvall, who had been coming nearer the woman all the time, reached out and snatched from her hands the umbrella she held. The others in the room regarded him with astonishment. The woman herself gave a cry of anger, and starting forward tried to recover her lost property.
Duvall yielded it to her at once, but not before he had torn from the handle two small round balls covered with knitted silk that hung from it by a heavy silken cord.
Miss Norman, seeing what he had done, drew back with a cry of anger. A few incoherent words trailed from her lips. Duvall, paying no attention to her, ripped open one of the silk-meshed coverings and extracted from it a small, round black object about the size of a hickory nut.
He gazed at it for a moment, then going quickly to the table in the center of the room brought the thing down smartly upon its surface.
There was a crackling sound, and bits of some black substance flew in every direction. A moment later the detective raised in his hand a glittering bit of metal and held it up so that the others might see it.
"The death's-head seal," he said, quietly.
Miss Norman fell on her knees before Ruth Morton, her hands upraised.
"Forgive me – forgive me!" she sobbed.
CHAPTER XXI
"In reconstructing the case from the beginning," Duvall said, later in the day, "one fact stands out with especial prominence – the almost total absence of any definite clues."
He was sitting in the library of the Morton apartment, and with him were his wife, Mrs. Morton and Ruth.
"The thing was certainly very cleverly done," Mrs. Morton remarked. "I still do not understand it in the least. How, for instance, were the letters placed in my daughter's room?"
"I am coming to that," replied Duvall. "But first I will run over the case in the light of Miss Norman's confession to me so that you may understand it thoroughly and decide what action you wish to take against her and her sister, Miss Ford."
"Her sister?"
"Yes. The woman's name is not Norman. It is Ford – Jane Ford. Norman is an assumed name.
"The two of them came to New York about a year ago from somewhere up the state – a small town near Rochester, I believe. One secured employment in the motion picture studio – the other, the one calling herself Miss Norman, worked as a stenographer.
"Her interest in motion pictures having been aroused by her sister's stories of the life in the studio, she became an ardent picture 'fan,' and spent every evening watching the films.
"Her attention was particularly devoted to the pictures in which your daughter appeared, owing to the stories her sister told her about Miss Morton's marvelous salary, her beauty, the ease with which she had become famous.
"These stories naturally inflamed her sister's mind. Working for ten dollars a week, she began to compare her state with that of a girl of her own age earning a hundred times as much, and gradually the idea began to possess her that she could become a motion-picture star herself.
"At first she admired Miss Morton immensely and never missed an opportunity to see the pictures in which she appeared. Then, convinced of her own ability as an actress, she made application at the studio at which her sister worked for a position.
"It seems she haunted the studio for several weeks without getting any encouragement. Then, more to get rid of her than for any other reason, one of the directors offered her a place as extra woman in a picture Miss Morton was doing – a very minor part, in which she had to appear momentarily as a saleswoman at a counter in a department store.
"Unfortunately, when Miss Morton saw her she happened to say to the director that she would have preferred a woman of a different type, dark, taller, so as to provide a more effective foil to her own type of beauty. As a result, the girl did not get the position."
"I am so sorry," Ruth cried. "I hadn't the least idea who the girl was, and, of course, I wouldn't have done her any harm for the world."
"I know that," Duvall replied, "but she did not. She is mentally rather erratic, and she at once conceived the idea that you had singled her out for persecution; that, in fact, you were envious of her abilities and meant to prevent her from getting a chance.
"The thing preyed on her mind, and I fancy, unbalanced it a little. She conceived a violent hatred for you, and with her sister began to plot revenge.
"Her first move was to persuade her sister to move to the house on Fifty-seventh Street, close to your apartment. It took them some time to find the place – to secure a room situated as Miss Ford's was, but at last they managed it. Then they went to work.
"The letters were all typewritten on a machine belonging to a public stenographer whom the girls knew. Jane Ford would stop in at this woman's place late in the afternoon and asking permission to use one of the machines would type the threatening letters. The paper she used was procured especially for her by her sister at a stationery store downtown.
"The seal, a curious thing, had belonged to the girls' father, and she conceived the idea of signing the letters with it to add to the grimness of her threats. As a matter of fact, I do not think she ever had the least intention of carrying them out. It was to be solely a campaign of fear. She probably thought that she could so frighten you, Miss Morton, that your health would be broken down, and your work consequently interfered with to such an extent that you would lose your position. As I say, I think she is mentally somewhat unbalanced. I cannot account for some of her actions, otherwise.
"The mailing of the first letter, the telephone messages, were comparatively simple. It was the delivery of those at the apartment that taxed her ingenuity. Yet the method was simple enough.
"The girls' father, I am told, had been an animal trainer in a circus, and one of his bequests to his daughters was a pet monkey named Jack, that had been taught to do all sorts of tricks. The girls brought this monkey to New York with them after their father's death. When the question arose of delivering the letters in your room, Miss Morton, she decided to make use of the animal.
"Creeping out of Marcia Ford's bedroom to the roof of the back building, and taking the monkey with her, she crossed the roof of the second house and reached the wall of the apartment. From here she was in a position to reach either of your bedroom windows in the following manner.
"The monkey was led by means of a long, thin rope, attached to a sort of harness about his neck and shoulders. By going to the rear edge of the back building they could readily swing him over to the fire-escape, while by ascending to the top of the attic roof overlooking the court, they could in the same way enable him to reach the other window. The monkey had been trained to carry objects in his mouth. This accounts for the row of indentations on the letters found in your room. I had supposed they came from some mechanical device, fastened to the end of a long pole, but as a matter of fact, they were made by the monkey's teeth.
"The animal being light in weight, and the pads of his feet being, of course, soft, no traces of his presence were left on the newly painted surface of the fire-escape. The handkerchief that I found there had been knotted about his neck as the collar to which the rope was fastened had seemed a bit weak. In some way it became detached, probably when the girls jerked on the cord to summon him back after he had completed his task.
"In crossing the roofs of the two houses, the monkey's paws, as well as the rope, became covered with dust. This explains the spots which seemed to be finger marks upon the counterpane of your bed, and the long, dark straight line across the bed, which I thought might have been left by a rod or pole. As a matter of fact, it was made by a tightly stretched rope.
"The sending of the monkey on the night when you were lying in bed must have been a mistake. You will remember that, contrary to your usual habit, you retired that night very early – a little after eight o'clock, if I remember correctly. The girls, coming over the room, saw that your room was dark, and naturally supposed that no one was in it. The grinning face of the monkey standing on the bed beside you, was the death's head apparition you thought you saw. At your cries the two women at once jerked on the cord, and the monkey hastened back to them through the partly raised window, leaving no trace of his presence except the black smudges of which I have spoken.
"I have no doubt that Jane Ford followed me back to my hotel after one of my early visits to your apartment, and thus learned my name and address. Her supposition that I was engaged in an attempt to ferret out the writer of the letters was a shrewd guess.
"The photograph was stolen from the studio by Marcia Ford who, being an employee, had ample opportunity to stroll about the place after office hours without exciting suspicion. She also arranged the subsequent delivery of the photograph and the substitution of the fake telegram.
"Even when I made my night visit to Marcia Ford's room, and was attacked in the dark by the monkey, I did not suspect what it was. The room was pitch dark, and in the gloom I got the impression of a much larger object – a person, in fact, and this impression was heightened by the fact that the animal wore a silken jacket, and I felt the sleeve of it against my throat. I only regret that the noise, the cries he made, singularly human in quality, made it necessary for me to leave the place so precipitately.
"The Ford girl and her sister had evidently just come in, and rushing to the room found evidences of some one having been there. The monkey had been shut in a closet, and by opening the door I had, of course, released it. Fearing discovery, they arranged to flee at once. Jane Ford went uptown. Her sister remained to pack up her belongings.
"The visit to your hotel, the attack on you, was a crazy inspiration of the moment. Not knowing that my wife was following her, and having seen me on the sidewalk on Fifty-seventh Street as she drove away, Miss Norman naturally felt that if she could get you, Mrs. Morton, out of the way, she would be perfectly safe in going up to your rooms.
"Even when alone with your daughter, she did not attempt to do her any serious bodily injury, but contented herself with hurling the ammonia in her face, counting, no doubt, upon the effect of the shock that would result. As I have said, the woman is mentally a little unbalanced. The things she does are not normal."
"Nevertheless, they came very near being fatal," Mrs. Morton remarked grimly. "The doctor informed me that the fright, the shock of her experience, might readily have caused Ruth's death, or upset her reason."
"I do not doubt it," replied Duvall. "The woman has all the cunning of an insane person. She showed it when, overcome by the sight of the death's-head seal I had flashed upon the screen at the theater, she so quickly recovered herself that she was able to deceive me completely regarding her condition, and subsequently to make her escape.
"Both she and her sister realized that it had become necessary for them to leave the city. Marcia Ford, taking the monkey with her in a cab, hastened uptown to join her sister at the latter's apartment. She knew that I was not following her, for she had seen me drive off to join you, Mrs. Morton, at my hotel. They both thought themselves quite safe, and able to leave the city without interference.
"The arrival of my wife at their apartment caused them to hasten their plans. They realized that we were close upon their heels. Jane Ford knew that the ring containing the death's-head seal was about the only evidence that existed against her, yet she hesitated to throw it away, as it had belonged to her father, and she prized it highly. With the cunning that she had exhibited throughout, she conceived the idea of hiding it in one of the tassels upon the handle of her umbrella.
"These tassels, as you perhaps know, are usually made of round bits of wood, enclosed in a covering of knitted silk. The girl removed one of the wooden balls, and having embedded the ring in a ball of black sealing wax, put it in place of the wooden one. It was a most ingenious hiding place, and one extremely unlikely to be discovered."
"How did you happen to discover it, Mr. Duvall?" Mrs. Morton asked.
"In this way. When my wife called my attention to the spots of black wax on the tray of the candlestick, I saw at once that a far larger amount of the wax had been melted than would have been required in making an ordinary seal. The impressions on the warnings the woman sent were very small and flat, so as to readily be inserted in the envelopes containing the letters without being bulky, or becoming broken while passing through the mails. But here were spots of the wax that had dripped down as large as a silver quarter and larger. What, I wondered, had caused the woman to melt so large a quantity of wax?
"I attempted to put myself in her place and to think what she would do to hide the seal ring. The idea of embedding it in a ball of the wax occurred to me. But, having done this, what would she do with the ball? It was not an easy thing to hide; in her purse, her satchel, it would have attracted attention at once. Then I noticed the round black ornaments hanging from her umbrella, with their silken cords and tassels. What better place to hide the ball of wax?
"In order to test my theory, I twice attempted to take the umbrella from her on our way here, as though to relieve her of the trouble of carrying it. In both instances she drew back at once, and refused to allow the umbrella to leave her possession. This action on her part convinced me that my guess had been a correct one. The subsequent finding of the ring broke down her assurance. As you know, she has made a complete confession."
"Poor woman," Ruth Morton remarked. "What are you going to do with her?"
"That rests with you, Miss Morton. If you decide to prosecute you can readily do so. The penalty for sending threatening letters through the mails is not a light one. And her attack upon you, under the circumstances, is a very serious matter indeed."
Ruth turned to her mother.
"I think we ought to let them go," she said.
"And have the same trouble over again," Mrs. Morton replied. "I could never feel safe with that woman at large."
"I do not think she will trouble you again, Mrs. Morton," remarked Duvall. "She is thoroughly frightened. All her assurance has disappeared. She begs that she and her sister be allowed to return home at once. It seems that some relative in Rochester has offered them a home there, and they were going to join her when we intercepted them."
"Then let them go," Ruth Morton exclaimed. "I certainly do not wish to cause them any harm, especially as you tell me the woman who originated the whole thing is mentally not quite right."
"She is certainly unbalanced, so far as her grievance against you is concerned. But I feel sure that were you to explain matters to her, and let her understand that your action in losing her the position at the studio was quite impersonal on your part, she will realize the folly of what she has done, and come to her senses."
"I will do it," said Ruth. "I don't want to injure her any more. Let them go home in peace."
"Very well." Duvall rose to go. "Permit me to say, Mrs. Morton, that I admire your daughter's generosity very much. Good morning." He and Grace bade their hosts good-by and took their leave.
"She's a lovely girl," Grace remarked, as they drove to their hotel. "I like her immensely."
"Then you aren't jealous of me any more, because I so suddenly became a motion-picture 'fan'?"
"Richard!" she laughed. "Don't be silly. I suppose I shall always be jealous of you when a girl, as beautiful as Ruth Morton, is concerned. After all, to be jealous is only a woman's way of paying tribute to another woman's charms."
Duvall laughed.
"It was Miss Ford's way, too," he said, "but as a means of showing one's appreciation it had its faults."